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Does your season change as you age?
If you’ve had a colour analysis or are considering getting a colour analysis, you might be wondering if your season will change as you age.
Perhaps you’re already a bit older and your existing colour palette no longer feels quite right, or you are concerned about investing in a colour analysis if it won’t last you a lifetime.
The general consensus is that personal colouring does change. However not everyone agrees this means your season can change.
i believe your season can change as you age
I believe that your season can change when you age. This is because colour analysis involves matching personal colouring to fabrics which have similar or complimentary qualities to us.
Since we already know and accept that our personal colouring changes as we get older, I’m sure we can agree it’s illogical to assume the colours that flatter us most won’t change too.
This is especially true when you remember colour seasons are a man made concept devised to help us group and understand colours in a logical way.
We must remember colours themselves will always exist on a spectrum without the conceptual boundaries we created. Our skin won’t stop getting cooler or softer because we’re supposed to be a Spring!
why some people believe your season can't change as you age
The idea that your season doesn’t change with age isn’t necessarily wrong. However, it usually comes from the older generation, or those who still use the Four Season Colour System. This is because the four season system had a much broader range of colour types within each colour palette (season).
Having only split the Munsell Colour Wheel into four palettes, there were fewer palette boundaries to cross. Only splitting the Munsell Colour Wheel into four also meant the palettes were very broad. Subsequently, most people sat firmly in the middle of a colour palette, opposed to on its edges.
This meant that changes to our colouring over time moved us around within our palette and changes would rarely be significant enough to push us over a palette boundary, changing our season completely.
As people analysed under this system rarely changed season over time, it was touted that “your season never changes”. This somehow became misinterpreted to mean our personal colouring doesn’t change, something which now gets incorrectly applied to other colour analysis systems.
Since the Four Seasons were introduced, there have been advancements in colour analysis systems. There are now anywhere between twelve and twenty-four palettes depending on which system you subscribe to.
Creating these palettes involves splitting the Munsell Colour Wheel into twelve or twenty-four palettes and results in higher accuracy when it comes to narrowing down our best colours. This has however resulted in narrower palettes and more boundaries. Something which significantly increases the likelihood we’ll pass palette boundaries and change season with age, when compared to the original Four Season System.
why your season can change as you age
Some changes that take place as we age involve, greying which affects our overall temperature and value. Loss of piment, which affects value and contrast. Mild jaundice and sallowing, which can be exacerbated by some colours and benefit from neutralising.
Colour Me Beautiful MD Cliff Bashforth is an excellent example of how these changes can unfold in a person over time. He was first analysed as a Soft Autumn when he was 26 before commencing his 35 year career as an Image Consultant.
Throughout the years he has tansitioned from Soft Autumn (Soft & Warm), to Soft Summer (Soft & Cool) before cooling even further to Cool Summer (Cool & Soft). Something verified by himself and his Colour Me Beautiful team.
Naturally we would feel skeptical of the photos below on their own, since we know older photos are less accurate and prone to displaying more golden hues. So I’m very grateful Cliff and his Colour Me Beautiful team kept an open mind about the possibility of changing season with age, and documented their findings over time.
whats the point in a colour analysis if my season can change?
So you’re probably now wondering if it’s worth getting a colour analysis when it’s possible to change palettes over time. And I suspect this doubt is one reason some colour analysts still sell the idea that your season will never change with age.
Those who do acknowledge your season can change, often say a colour analysis is still worth it and try to compare getting re-analysed to maintaining your hair at the salon.
Whilst I do agree a colour analysis is worth it, I appreciate the comparison to a hair-cut or colour isn’t really so simple. It’s not like you’re just paying a stylist for the new service and palette. You will have already invested money, time, and love into your existing wardrobe based on previous results.
Nobody who has done that wants to hear the colours no longer work for them!
What I would say is not to worry too much about what might happen in the future, as a colour analysis can give you immediate benefits now. Also whilst I have acknowledged for the sake of honesty and myth busting that your season can change with age, that doesn’t mean that it will.
Even if you change, my general belief is that changes are subtle in the grand scheme of things. Whilst you may no longer feel perfect in the palette you wore whilst younger, and you might technically belong somewhere else, you’ll still look great!
If we look at Cliff Bashforth again. We’ll see he was Warm, Soft, Medium-Light and he is now Cool, Soft, Light.
Technically, he absolutely has changed palettes. Technically your best palette can change.
However when we look closely at his three colour properties, only his temperature has changed significantly. Overall he has remained consistently soft, and relatively light across time. Also whilst Cliff has moved through three palettes, all three of Cliffs palettes are still quite relative, sitting within the same quadrant of the Colour Analysis Wheel.
Essentially, even though his Soft Autumn palette is no longer his absolutely best, it will still flatter his value (light) and chroma (soft). This is something which in my opinion still makes colour analysis a good lifelong investment.